I've already posted this on another post, but I think it's worth a post of it's own:

There is a big 'classic bike' scam going on UK E-Bay at the moment, which looks as though the identities of legitimate sellers are being highjacked. There is usually a good description and a single small photo, both of which have been lifted from somewhere else. The bikes are usually offered at a really low starting price, but there's always also a very low 'willing to let it go for' price. The ad always ends up with something like:

I AM LISTING THIS FOR A FRIEND SO CONTACT HIM DIRECTLY AT: millyy11@aol.co.uk
WILLING TO LET IT GO FOR 3,000 POUNDS
HE WON'T BE ABLE TO RESPOND IF YOU CONTACT ME SO GET IN TOUCH WITH HIM AT: millyy11@aol.co.uk

I've reported loads of these to E-Bay, and they ususally get removed, but I guess it must be hard for them to keep up with the scammers.

This is the latest one I've found -
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TRIUMPH-BONNEVILLE-T120R-/291026797704?pt=UK_Motorcycles&hash=item43c28c8488

The scammer is using various seller identities, which must be a pain for the parties involved.

The more people that report these suspect listings to E-Bay the better.

Scorp.

Hi Scorp, I've just replied to this comment on the other post but I'll post it here too :-)

I'll take your word for it that that's a scam but I can't see anything wrong with what he's saying. The proof is when you try to view the bike. He has 100% feedback and a high feedback score, he also doesn't sell bikes or bike parts which would make sense that the bike is a one off sale.
I've listed a lot of bikes for other people and I've worded the listing quite similarly. I get bombarded with questions about the bike so I say contact the owner. That listing has been ended by the seller and not ebay, which would suggest it's been sold legitimately.

email (option): horror@blueyonder.co.uk

If this was an isolated advert, I too would give it the benefit of the doubt, hoever, there have been many adverts with the same or very similar wording beneath, what appears to be a genuine wording, and in each case the 'vendor' has been different and appears to be a genuine E-Bay member.
I would love to be proved wrong, but I'm sure accounts have been hijacked. My patners account was hijacked, a couple of years ago, buy someone in the USA, but luckily E-Bay sorted it out, although it took a while.

I notice that that all the listings that I've reported have now been pulled, so I guess E-Bay must agree, and I've had a message back from one of the 'sellers', that I contacted through their business address, to say that they had nothing to do with the listing.

Scorp.

Here's the latest ad. that's just been listed:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1973-TRIUMPH-HURRICANE-X75-/231105113193?pt=UK_Motorcycles&hash=item35cef02c69

Same format as before and a completely new 'seller'.



If anyone manages to buy it at that price I'll buy it off you + 10%!!!

Scorp.

I've not heard of anyone having their abay account hijacked before!? How do they do that? It's certainly a worry and I hope ebay are taking it seriously. Every time I've had cause to contact ebay before, they have been next to useless.

The Hurricane is shown as having the listing removed by the seller due to an 'error'...

I guess that might be the fact he doesn't own it.. ...

Increasingly often I see bikes for sale that just don't 'ring true' for one reason or another...Price, dodgy description, odd purchase terms etc. etc.... ....This Hurricane has a 'buy it now' price at least £5000 minimum under its true market value...Nobody who owns a bike like that is THAT out of touch with the prices...Ian

I've had replies from some of the sellers who've had their account hijacked, this being the latest:

"I’m not in the least ‘involved’ other than someone hacked my account to post fraudulent listings. Ebay have been brilliant alerting me to this scam and helping me sort it out. If you’ve any dealings with these people I advise you to contact Ebay immediately.
Regards
Marion Hodgson
Ideal Ticket Printers"

The way the scammers usually get account details is by providing you with a link that sends you to a fake E-Bay page that asks for your logon details. It's very easily done, and, unfortunately not always easy to spot. Once they've got the logon they can simply list on your account, but put diversionary contact details, such as 'listing for a friend - contact mail@spammer.com'. They will circumvent E-Bay's listing checks, by putting their contact stuff on a gif, rather than as text.
Scorp.

I wouldn't buy anything from someone at 'spammer.com'... ..

But seriously this is useful information...The clever thing is that the sellers feedback record is good...and that's enough to convince some people that everything is genuine I would think...

It still puzzles me why scammers offer things like Triumph Hurricanes at very low prices though....that is bound to alert many people...
Better to offer it at just under the right money so as not to trigger the 'alarm bells' I would have thought...

Or maybe the rush to buy a 'cheap' Hurricane cancels out the 'caution logic'....

Just a thought, but if you were to contact the 'lister' and not the supposed seller wouldn't that put you right in touch with the person who has had their account hacked?..

If that's how it works that might be the thing to do every time you are interested in something that's being 'listed for a friend'...Ian

Thanks for showing us this Scorp. The Hurricane is far too cheap and I would recognise that one as a scam I once had my ebay account hijacked and someone listed a speed boat. The first I knew about it was an e-mail from ebay, they knew it wasn't me that listed it. I'm not sure how they got my password but I think it was replying to a scam listing for a bike. I'm usually very careful and I don't click on links, so a bit odd how that happened. But as I clicked on my ebay login page, the page would flicker slightly and a false login page was on my screen. As you put in your account e-mail and password, they've got it. I started putting in the wrong password everytime I logged into ebay, if it said it was wrong, I was on the right ebay page, if it went though it was fake.

The simple thing with all these scams is don't hand over any money until you have the bike. Collect it in person or don't hand over money until it's delivered to you.

email (option): horror@blueyonder.co.uk

You're right Ian, that's why the spammers tell you to use the email address of their 'friend', because they (the proxy 'seller') are too busy to answer emails. I'm sure that nobody on this Forum would be silly enough to fall for one of these scams!...


Triumph TT Bonneville, fantastic, two owner bike, fully maintained regardless of cost and dry stored for last few years. Currently on SORN.
Listing for an ex-army buddie's widow, who doesn't know much about these things. Please contact her direct as I'm away most of the time.
She will accept £3,500 for quick sale as her son is terminally ill.
imaconman@mugfinder.com

Scorp.

Come to think of it, I did get a warning from ebay about this sort of thing a few months ago. Their main point was that they will always address you by your full name, not Dear Customer. If you get a Dear Customer message asking for your details, ignore it or better still tell ebay.

There are many ways they could hijack someone ebay account.

The easiest way is you get an email from someone posing as ebay with a
"click this link to login within 3 days or your account will be locked' or something to that effect.
Of course the link is not a real ebay link and when you enter your username and password they've got you.

Other smarter ways are keyboard loggin trojens that you can get on your PC from dodgy emails or websites if you dont run virus protection that record your keyboard strokes and when they look like they have an ebay login or Mastercard details send it off to who ever infected your PC.

Hijacking legitimate sellers accounts unfortunately is not uncommon, I know of 1 or 2 people its happened to.

email (option): tmuir12@gmail.com

this may be a scam? nice ariel square four for 3k, listed for a friend, contact him directly. ebay 271334517509

email (option): mrsbfuller@hotmail.co.uk

Have sent the ebay account holder an email telling him he's grossly underpriced the bike! So that if it is a scam he's at least notified of what's going on.

It is a scam - exactly the same scammers as all the other recent classic bike scams.
Wouldn't you just like to get hold of them!!!?
Scorp.

Item now delisted!

I've just asked the original ebayer to confirm if it's a genuine sale.

Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Missed the Square 4?..Never mind...try this one instead... 121225297505 ...Ian

This guy is a busy chap...A quick browse through the bikes for sale quickly turned up another four listings...Ian

the website gumtree is very bad for scammers.
i once replied to an ad on there for a 1951 rigid triumph thunderbird sprung hub, it was fully restored and nearly all together, the so called seller was asking £2500, i thought what a bargain.
the seller emailed back saying to transfer the money to a certain account and he would get a courier to deliver the bike at my address, straight away i knew it was a scam but ive came across a few other scammers on there in the past.
so you have to be careful no matter where your looking to buy..

email (option): mrsbfuller@hotmail.co.uk

norvin for 3k, look at the other items 171184969573

email (option): mrsbfuller@hotmail.co.uk

Any mug who pays for something not in the flesh deserves what they get. Just bid on something you can look at or pay when you pick up.

Well that's not always practical Doug. By now I would have had to visit your country a few times not to mention USA, Canada and parts of Europe Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

I spoke yesterday to a friend who just got scammed on a log processor for £6500. scammer was in Bulgaria.well that's where money ended up, If you tell them you live in Kent it will be in Scotland if you live in Scotland it will be in Kent, I was after a digger , funny it was in Scotland, I live in Kent I asked where it was they told me as selling for a friend, and will be delivered by a courier the next day !!!, said I would pop round tomorrow to look, collect and pay cash, guess what no reply, I Have reported at least Five like this, all have been taken down by E bay, Report them chaps if you suspect any thing, if genuine It will get sorted out, if not it makes them work harder £ 6500, not a bad weeks work, They are getting smarter don't let it happen to you, Andrew.h.

email (option): warbikes@gmail.com

The scam is not neccessarily aiming to get the full price, they will often say that there's been a lot of offers, so if you want to reserve it you must pay a deposit. People who wouldn't risk the full amount will often be happy to pay the deposit to ensure they get 'the bargain'.If the scammer has a lot of scams running, that can add up to a lot of money in deposits!
Scorp.

We've all sold bike parts in a magazine or paper and people have sent the money and you send the part, in the past it was always done on trust. I've even dealt with a few dealers who I've never met, that have sent me the parts first with an invoice in the parcel. It's very difficult to do these things without a bit of trust, but I must admit I have lost money this way to Canada and USA, but luckily under £100. This was before Paypal where the seller has to be able to prove you've received the item. But the problem with Paypal comes when dealing from Australia to UK. This can take weeks for an item to arrive and you are on the time limit to be able to claim your money back from them.
I had to leave £500 deposit when I bought my Manx, so I sent that via Paypal in case it was a scam. I had spoken to the bloke for about an hour before hand and it was a business (or so he said) but I was still nervous about sending money for a bike I'd only seen on pictures.

email (option): horror@blueyonder.co.uk

I was only referring to a whole bike or expensive items. Of course i have fronted money for parts plenty of times.